Maryette Goodwin Mackey, Educator

Maryette Goodwin was born in 1865, the daughter of Sandusky attorney Homer Goodwin and his wife, the former Marietta Cowles. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1888, and married attorney Denver John Mackey in 1892. In the early years of the twentieth century, Maryette Goodwin Mackey served on the Board of Trustees of the Sandusky Library Association. By 1910, Mr. and Mrs. Mackey were residing in Los Angeles County, California with their two young daughters, Florence and Margaret.

In 1908, Maryette Goodwin Mackey and her sister in law Mary Mackey Stuart co-authored the book, The Pronunciation of 10,000 Proper Names. 

In 1924, the Handbook of Proceedings of the California Library Association listed Maryette G. Mackey as the Principal of the Foreign Extension Department of the Los Angeles Public Library. During her tenure, she wrote this article:

Mrs. Maryette Goodwin Mackey passed away in California in 1933. She seems to have been connected to books and libraries for most of her life.

Benwood Food Products, Processed in Sandusky

Pictured above is a wooden codfish box packed by the Bender-Woodward Company in Sandusky, Ohio. The Benwood brand name was a combination of the company’s officials, M.J. Bender, Jr. and W.W. Woodward. The Benwood brand of food products were produced in the 1920s

One of the partners in the Bender-Woodward Company

From about 1896 to 1902, M.J. Bender, Jr. operated a grocery store at the southwest corner of Hancock and Monroe Streets; by 1908, he had moved his business to the southeast corner of Hancock and Water Streets. Around 1910, Mr. Bender went into business with W. W. Woodward. Bender was the president of the company, and Woodward was the Vice President. (Mr. Woodward had previously been associated with Hoover-Woodward.) The Bender-Woodward store, which operated as a wholesale grocery business, was in business in Sandusky until 1939. Eventually, M.J. Bender Jr.’s son Elliot became associated with the company.

An advertisement in the May 20, 1924 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal promoted the Benwood Brand.

In 1924, Bender-Woodward Co. was just one of several local sponsors of the Garland Cooking School, which met for an entire week at the Dilgart & Bittner Co. on Washington Row.

Stereograph Cards of the Lake Erie Islands, by A.C. Platt

A.C. Platt was a popular photographer in Sandusky, Ohio in the 1870s and 1880s. The stereograph image above shows the A.C. Platt photographic art gallery and party room at Put in Bay. Platt produced a series of stereographic views of scenes on the Lake Erie Islands.

Here is a stereograph card of the well-known Round House at Put in Bay:

While we do not know whose house is pictured, here is a view of the inside of a home at Put in Bay:

In Coewell’s (or possibly Crowell’s) Billiard hall, several gentlemen appear to be enjoying beverages, before they play pool:

The Atlantic Billiard Hall is featured in this stereograph card:

An article from the July 9, 1873 issue of the Sandusky Register reported on the opening of the Atlantic Billiard Hall. A transcription of the article reads:

On Put in Bay

Among the new attractions this year on Put-in-Bay is the new Atlantic Billiard Hall in Doller's new building. Mr. Fred Gill, the proprietor, has fitted up the room in an elegant and tasty manner. The main room is 50x100 feet, and contains six of Brunswick, Balke and Co.'s splendid billiard tables, finished in superb style, and provided with Phelan's patent cushions, than which there are no better made. There is a pocket table for ball pool, and also one for pin pool. Mr. Gill has taken great pains to make his establishment au attractive place, one which ladies can visit with propriety and never have occasion to regret it. We are of the opinion and earnestly trust that Mr. Gill will have a successful season, for he is of a very obliging disposition, and exerts himself to the utmost to please his patrons. In addition to his billiard room, he has fitted up a ladies parlor, where ladies can go and enjoy themselves sipping lemonades or cobblers to their heart's content, without fear of molestation. In a few days Mr. Gill will have another entrance to his place, on the south side, for the especial accommodation of ladies and their escorts. He has stocked his bar with the choicest of wines, liquors and cigars, and what is better does not charge exorbitant prices for anything. A visit to the Atlantic Billiard Hall will convince any one that what we have said is strictly true, and we can assure them that Mr. Gill, who is a courteous gentleman, will strive to make them feel at home. Give him a call when you are on Put-in-Bay.

I.J.P. Tessier

Israel J.P. Tessier was born in 1848 in Ontario, Canada. As a young man he moved to Ohio, where he learned the printer’s trade. He was an apprentice to a printer in Toledo for several years. While in Toledo, in 1867, he married Margaret Quigley. Eventually Mr. and Mrs. Tessier moved to Sandusky,  where he became foreman of the job department of the Sandusky Register. 

In 1885, I.J.P. Tessier was the president of the “Register Monumental Association.” The Association arranged the acquisition of a lot at Oakland Cemetery for graves for former employees of the Register. The buyers of the lot were I.F. Mack, John T. Mack, and C.C. Keech.

Sandusky Register Monument, Lot 87, Oakland Cemetery

In 1900, Mr. Tessier was elected to the position of Erie County Recorder, a position he held at the time of his death on April 13, 1905. He left behind a wife, four daughters and two sons. He was buried at Oakland Cemetery.

William Booth gave an oration at the funeral; it was published in the April 22, 1905 issue of the Sandusky Register. It read in part, 

“He was one of God’s noblest works – an honest man. Every day some man’s burden was made a little lighter by a kindly deed or an encouraging word. He loved to pluck the flowers of happiness that grew along life’s rugged pathway that others might catch and enjoy their beauty and fragrance. His words of cheer and commendation were not kept until the one for whom they were intended had passed away….”

Scott Paper Company in Sandusky

1972 aerial picture of Scott Paper Co. from the Thomas F. Root Collection

From 1945 until it closed in 1981, Scott Paper Company did business on West Shoreline Drive, at the foot of Fulton Street. (In the 1940s and 1950s, Shoreline Drive was known as Railroad Street.) In 1945 the Scott Paper Company took over the assets of the Automatic Paper Factory, which had been in Sandusky since 1942. A page from the 1955 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the Scott Paper plant adjacent to Sandusky Bay.

The Sandusky plant of Scott Paper was the Cut Rite Division, which manufactured wax paper. In a special section promoting local industry, an article in the November 9, 1956 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News reported that the Scott Paper Company concentrated on quality. The goals were to: make a limited number of consumer products of highest quality, manufacture them at the lowest possible cost, and to advertise widely. The advertisement below appeared in the Sandusky Register Star News of February 11, 1954.

Eventually the Scott Paper Company in Sandusky also began manufacturing disposable wipes. By 1980, the company had 400 employees. In 1980, there was talk of phasing out the Sandusky division of Scott Paper. Local efforts to keep Scott Paper in Sandusky included the catch phrase, “Great Scott, Don’t Go.”

However, company officials ultimately decided to close its facility in Sandusky. The Cut Rite waxed paper division moved to Fort Edward, New York, and the production of Baby Fresh wipes was transferred to Dover, Delaware. Today Kimberley Clark is the parent company of Scott Paper products.

Though it was only in Sandusky, Ohio for thirty five years, Scott Paper Co. provided jobs for hundreds of local residents. Looking through old copies of the Sandusky Register, you might notice the Scott Paper Company mentioned often in wedding announcements and obituaries.

Harry L. Cole, Erie County Sheriff

Harry Lewis Cole was born in Huron, Ohio in 1879 to Mr. and Mrs. Angus Cole. For twenty years, he was a conductor on the Lake Shore Electric Railway.

Lake Shore Electric Railway Car No. 41 near Sandusky Car Barns

From 1924 to 1929, Harry L. Cole served as the Erie County Sheriff. As this term was during Prohibition, often he was called on to arrest those who were engaged in consuming or selling intoxicating liquor. An article which appeared in the February 22, 1925 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal reported that Sheriff Cole had started “relentless warfare against the flask, jug or bottle toter.”

On January 1, 1929, the Sandusky Star Journal featured a summary of Sheriff Cole’s accomplishments during his final year as Erie County Sheriff. In 1928, there had been over 300 prisoners at the Erie County Jail.

During Sheriff Cole’s term the County Jail was on West Adams Street

The article also stated that number of automobile accidents had been reduced in Erie County during 1928. After his term as Sheriff ended, he founded the Harry L. Cole Insurance Agency. Mr. Cole died on May 27, 1960. He and his wife M. Viola Cole, who survived her husband until 1977, were buried at the Scott Union Cemetery.

To learn more about the many elected officials of Erie County, Ohio, see the book Elected to Serve Erie County, Ohio, 1838-2003 by Patty Dahm Pascoe. It is housed in the Reference Services area of the Sandusky Library.

Ernestine Weier Waldock

Ernestine Weier, sometimes known as Helen Ernestine Weier, was born in Sandusky in 1900, to Henry Weier and his wife, the former Elizabeth Py. She was a 1917 graduate of Sandusky High School. Ernestine began her studies at Lake Erie College in Painesville in 1917. While at Lake Erie College, she was an outstanding athlete on the women’s track team. An article from the Sandusky Register of May 18, 1919 reported that she claimed a school record by hurling the discus 48 feet, 7 ½ inches.

Ernestine graduated from Lake Erie College in June of 1921 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Sadly, in March of 1925, Ernestine’s uncle John Weier and her father Henry Weier, both died. The brothers had both ran the Weier Brothers salvage yard, which had been a successful business in Sandusky. In September of 1925, Ernestine Weier married William Leonard Waldock at the First Reformed Church. The article about the Weier-Waldock wedding indicated that “Because of the recent bereavements in the Weier family, the wedding was marked by simplicity of detail.”

Mrs. Ernestine Weier Waldock died in 1962 at the age of 62. Her final resting place is the Weier family mausoleum at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.